Here's What We've Done 



■■•■,.■': •.■(Continued from page 11) 

 cream station prices in central Illinois 

 were 37 cents a pound on a 45 cent Chi- 

 cago butter market. Contrast that with 

 the recent price of 30 cents paid by a 

 private cream station in Mason county 

 on a 28% cent Chicago butter market. 

 Does co-operation pay? 



More than 70 co-operative produce as- 

 sociations were established in this state. 

 There is ample proof that they raised 

 local bids an average of at least four 

 cents a pound over the state. Apply this 

 to 53 million pounds of butterfat pro- 

 duced last year and you get $2,120,000. 

 Is that worth having? At a few points, 

 chiefly in southern Illinois, co-operative 

 marketing raised local prices for butter- 

 fat from six to seven cents a pound. 



The cream pools operated quite suc- 

 cessfully in the beginning. But some 

 time before the co-operative creamery 

 program was launched it became appar- 

 ent that bids of the processors for the 

 pool cream were approximately the same. 

 It appeared that the processors were 

 getting together before submitting their 

 bids. Farmers felt that the bid prices 

 represented too great a discount under 

 the Chicago 90 score butter market so 

 they urged that the lAA help set up a 

 chain of co-operative creameries each 

 big enough to process at least a million 

 pounds of butter a year. 



To make a long story short eight of 

 these centralized co-operative creameries 

 have been established at Peoria, Moline, 

 Champaign, Olney, Bloomington, Car- 

 bondale, Galesburg and Mt. Sterling. The 

 latest, at Mt. Sterling, is scheduled to 

 open early in December. 



These co-operative creameries are do- 

 ing things that no private creamery can 

 possibly do under the present situation. 

 The co-operatives have allocated terri- 

 tory and are assembling cream by truck 

 while it is still fresh. Under the com- 

 petitive private system there are as many 

 as five or six cream stations in a town 

 all competing for the farmers' business. 

 Think of the waste in assembling cream 

 with such a system. More than that, 

 think of the waste to the farmer in al- 

 lowing his cream to set around in stores, 

 cream stations, railway stations and on 

 trains while its quality steadily de- 

 clines. 



Any processor will tell you that you 

 can't make high-grade butter from old 

 cream or from very sour cream. Illinois 

 farmers have been and are losing millions 

 of dollars annua'ly: first, by not taking 

 better care of their cream, and, second- 

 ly, by failing to get their cream to the 

 processing plant while it is still fresh. 



Illinois Producers Creameries are 

 demonstrating that they can produce 90 

 to 92 score butter and get more money 



One of Danville Producen' Dairy shiny new trucks. Work is under way on a nKodern distribut- 

 ing plant. It is being erected by Richard Beard of the Beard Ic* Co. who will furnish water, 

 power and refrigeration. 



for their butter than the private, cen- 

 tralized creameries. There has been com- 

 plaint for years by private creameries of 

 low-quality cream in southern Illinois, 

 yet the Producers Creameries at Car- 

 bondalc and Olney are demonstrating 

 that they can produce 90 score butter 

 with Southern Illinois cream when gath- 

 ered by trucks while it is fresh. Ninety 

 score butter is being shipped out of these 

 two plants consistently. Besides paying 

 the prevailing price for cream — which is 

 higher since co-operative marketing 

 came into the picture — an additional 

 patronage dividend of two cents a pound 

 is being paid by the earlier organized 

 creameries. 



The eight centralized co-operatives 

 cover substantially all of the important 

 butterfat sections of the state. In north- 

 western Illinois there are a number of 

 smaller creameries, all organized by the 

 County Farm Bureau, the lAA or both, 

 at such points as Mt. Carroll, Polo, 

 Elizabeth and East Dubuque. These 

 creameries have all been successful in re- 

 turning a maximum price for cream. 



The poultry and egg marketing pro- 

 gram for Illinois is now being formulated. 

 The possibilities here appear to be quite 

 as attractive as in milk and cream. There 

 are approximately 35,000,000 chickens 

 raised annually and the cash income 

 from 1,500,000,000 eggs laid yearly by 

 Illinois hens exceeds that from chickens. 

 From 1928 to 1932 cash income from 

 chickens dropped from $20,898,000 to 

 $10,516,000 annually. Since then there 

 has been some recovery. Yet last year 

 the combined cash income from chickens 

 and eggs in Illinois totaled a little more 

 than $26j000,000. Here again the great 

 opportunity in co-operative marketing 

 lies in improving the quality of eggs and 

 poultry and marketing them direct to 

 retail outlets under our own brands. 



The eight co-operative creamery plants 



with upwards of 200 trucks on the road 

 daily offer an ideal setup for assembling 

 poultry and eggs. At no additional ex- 

 pense trucks now picking up cream can 

 load on fresh eggs and poultry. The 

 direct daily contact between the truck 

 salesman and farmers has almost un- 

 limited possibilities in an educational 

 way — for spreading information about 

 the care of eggs and the feeding of 

 quality poultry for market. 



Nothing succeeds like success. The 

 best argument to support co-operative 

 milk and produce marketing is the fact 

 that there are hundreds of well-estab- 

 lished milk, butter manufacturing, poul- 

 try and egg co-operatives, some of them 

 doing a tremendously large business, 

 from California to New Jersey. Illinois is 

 a little behind schedule on co-operative 

 produce marketing, but we are catching 

 up rapidly and building soundly as we go. 

 You can't measure the value of co-opera- 

 tive marketing by price comparisons 

 after the co-operative is established. The 

 greatest contribution the co-operative 

 makes is to raise the general price level 

 in communities where they operate. — 

 Editor. 



Checks averaging $25.37 per Farm 

 Bureau member patron were distributed 

 by the Livingston Service Company at 

 its Sixth Annual Meeting, Pontiac, No- 

 vember 21. 1,151 Farm Bureau members 

 received patronage and preferred divi- 

 dended checks totaling $30,804.33. Pat- 

 ronage dividends declared were 22% on 

 lube, oil and grease, 15% on rural 

 sales of Magic Aladdin gasoline and 

 Radiant kerosene, 12% on sales by fill- 

 ing stations and dealers, 11% on rural 

 sales of third grade gasoline, and 7% 

 on distillate. Annual dividends total 

 $103,682.54, er approximately four and 

 one-half times paid in capital stock. E. 

 C. Campbell is manager. 



14 



I. A. A." RECORD 



